ten's a cliche number
by xoYanaaa
Summary: Nine times Artemis Crock was left flustered by no one other than Wally West. Spitfire.
**A/N: I managed to write this in one freaking day (it took me _hours_ ), even though today is the day where I have most of my classes, and I had a ton of schoolwork but I just had to write it because last night I legit got one hour of sleep (I'm so serious) because I was thinking of this and it formulated into a story and yeah. This is the longest one-shot I've written so I'm kind of proud myself right now and I really hope this is good because I didn't proof read—but maybe I will. Someday. **

**Anyway, I really hope you enjoy this. I don't know if I like the way this came out. Sigh...**

 **Edited 3.11.16. I edited this (for the most part, I just know there's still some mistakes. Sorry) because I found so many mistakes and I couldn't leave it like that.**

* * *

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 _ **one.**_

Artemis isn't surprised when he's late.

They're at the tower, in combat training. Black Canary assigns for them to spar with each other instead of her, so everyone grabs a partner. M'gann goes with Connor of course, giggling and laughing as she playfully hits him while he's smiling a bit and blocking her shots. Robin would have gone with Zatanna, but she's working on a spell to heal her flu she caught so she's out. Robin goes with Kaldur instead, flipping and tumbling his way around him while Kaldur tries to get a hit on him. That just leaves Artemis. She doesn't know where Kid Slug is, and she's irritated that he's late—when is he ever _not_ late? So she has to sit and watch everyone spar and do nothing.

Thirty minutes goes by and Wally finally strolls in the room. He's wearing an orange tank top so bright it makes her eyes hurt and black shorts. She sends him an annoyed glare, which he returns with a slightly sheepish grin.

"Sorry I'm late, Arty," he says, walking up to her and beginning to stretch.

" _Don't_ call me Arty," she growls.

He sends her a lopsided grin while he's in the middle of toe touching before he begins to stretch his arms. She can't help but look at his arms when his muscles flex from the motion. When she looks back at his face, he's looking down at her with a shit-eating grin, beaming because he caught her looking at him. All she wants to do is punch that grin right off his face, so she stomps over to the mat and crosses her arms expectantly.

He's still grinning when he gets there and that makes her even more irritated.

"You look like an angry chipmunk." He laughs.

"Just hurry up, Wally. You already wasted most of our time." She sends him another glare before getting into fighting stance, her fists up and ready.

"Don't worry." His eyebrows bounce up and down as he gets into his stance as well. "I'm always up for a reschedule so we can have more of some _us time._ "

She ignores him and shoots her right fist out. He quickly dodges, making her even more annoyed.

"Stop using your super speed, cheater!" she yells, throwing another punch, which hit air again.

"I'm not—I'm just that fast."

Wally ducks when she throws a roundhouse kick his way and his grin only gets bigger. With another animalistic growl, she throws punches and kicks all at once his way and he dodges all of them, even blocking a few.

"Now you _know_ that you're using your super speed," she says, starting to pant.

"Maybe, maybe not," he singsongs, dodging another one of her sidekicks.

All she wants to do is smack the freckles off his face when he begins laughing at her because all of her attacks hit air. So she huffs and charges straight at him, but he speed away to the side before she could get her hands on him.

"Fight like a man and give me some real competition!" she shouts, panting heavily as she watches him through narrowed eyes.

"Fine." Before she could react, he speeds toward her and hooks his leg with hers. She barely has anytime to gasp when he pushes her over and she falls on her back. All of her fury clouds her vision as she watches him laugh from her laying position.

 _He's dead meat. When I'm through with him, he'll be begging for mercy as I—_

Her brutal thoughts are interrupted when he grabs her wrist and pulls her up. After she ungracefully stumbles up, she's ready to snatch her wrist away and pummel his ass to the floor when she notices he's looking at her. His green eyes danced in mirth as he cocked his head to the side, regarding her from his lower lids. She can feel her face flush as he continues to silently look at her.

"What?" she says, annoyed that her face is feeling hot for some strange reason. He slowly smiles down at her and it causes her to take a step back.

" _What?_ " she demands again, glancing his freckled cheeks with were now turned upward. She doesn't know why she's so flustered under his gaze.

"I'm taller than you," Wally finally says, his smile growing wider.

"…Huh?"

"I'm finally _taller_ than you now, Arty."

It takes her a moment to realize that he's, in fact, correct. She never really thought about how she has to actually lift her head up to meet his eyes, or that he has to look down now.

"No you're not." She wrenches her wrist away from his hand and puts her hands on her hips. When she first came on the team, she was taller than him by at least an inch. She never cared, but apparently Wally did. And if there was one thing more annoying than him, it was the fact that he was taller than her. She felt like she had less authority over him now.

"Yeah I am." His voice drops a few octaves lower and he leans even closer and Artemis is pretty sure her face is the color of his hair now. "The view's much better from up here."

She doesn't know what he's referring to (although she can take a wild guess when he glances below her neck) and doesn't _want_ to know. But she's stuttering like an idiot while he winks at her and she has enough. She grabs his shoulders and knees him between the legs and watches his eyes cross before she stomps away, ignoring his groans of pain.

"I am _never_ training with you again, Wally West!" she yells before slamming the door after her.

It takes a while for her to calm her frantic heartbeats down, but she blames it on the exercise.

.

.

 _ **two.**_

It's eleven at night when Artemis hears him.

The team just got back from a mission of defeating drugged, mutant animals and she was just exhausted. She has a serious migraine from when Wolf slammed into her, making her hit her head on a tree and several animal bites on her arms. So as soon as they make it back to the tower, she face plants onto her bed and doesn't get up for a while.

She's pretty sure she was sleeping because when she opens her eyes, she hears and feels someone's presence at her door. She stiffens immediately, thoughts of any bad guys that could have made it past their security and was now going to take her away, but relaxes (for the most part) when she realizes it's Wally. His obnoxiously loud breathing makes Artemis roll her eyes and sigh.

"What do you want, Wally?" she murmurs into her pillow.

"How did you know it was me?" she hears him ask.

"You're not exactly made for stealth," she answers, slowly pulling herself up into a sitting position and hugs her pillow. When she glances his way, he's standing at her doorway and she notices he has a white cast on his left arm and it was in a blue sling.

"So this happened," Wally says, gesturing to his arm.

"Is it broken?" she asks him, still studying the cast.

"Yup." He sighs. "But the doc said that I was lucky."

"How?"

"If I hadn't had it in a sling after it happened, then it would have done some serious damage or something."

"Or something," she repeats, though she doesn't know why.

He nods. "So, uh, I guess what I'm trying to say is…thank you."

Even though she's known him for almost two months now, she had never heard those words come out of his mouth before. She looks at him quizzically, and he's looking earnestly at her.

"It's no big deal," she says after a while, and she means it. When she saw he was favoring his right arm back at the mission, she knew something was off. So she ran over to him (having to maneuver and dodge other enemies in the meanwhile, but whatever), took his "souvenir," and made him a sling for his injured arm. She stepped back after and studied her work before she was nailed in the head by wolf. She doesn't tell him about her migraine, though.

"So." She fiddles with the hem of her pillowcase after a few moments of silence. He's still standing at her doorway, pretending to be inspecting his cast. "Who signed it so far?"

He seems to perk up at that. "No one, yet."

"Wow. No one wanted to sign it? Harsh." She chuckles at that.

"Actually," Wally says slowly, the tips of his ears redder than usual. "I kind of wanted you to be the first one to sign it."

Artemis feels her face flush, much to her annoyance, and she swallows. "Why?"

He shrugs. "'Cause, I mean, you were the one who helped me so…"

Artemis smiles, forgetting about her pounding head (but not about her pounding heart). "You got a sharpie?"

He beams at her and bobs his head up and down, stepping fully into her room now and handing her a green sharpie.

She's so flustered she accidentally messes up her name and makes the last to letters uneven and sloppy. She mutters an embarrassed apology but he shakes his head and tells her it's great. Now it's her turn to beam.

.

.

 _ **three.**_

Artemis feels absolutely and utterly disgusting.

She hates a lot of things. She hates it when people chew with their mouths open (like Wally West), she hates it when people go through her things (like Wally West), and she hates it when she gets dirty. And she's not talking about the dirt like an "Oh, I accidentally stepped in mud." She's talking about being _filthy_. Like after they got back from fighting with Clayface.

He was, no doubt, her least favorite villain of all time. At least villains like The Joker don't drown you in disgusting, horrid clay, dirt, and mud. She got dirt all over her suit, which now became brown and black instead of green and black. There was dirt and clay caked under her nails, clumps of dried clay all over her arms and legs, and hardened blood and dirt on her boots that will probably never come out. But worst of all, there were _thousands_ of pieces of hardened, disgusting, clay balls stuck in her hair.

She spent about three hours alone picking out all of the pieces of dirt in her hair. Then she spent two hours scrubbing the dirt off of her body and washing her hair. In all, she went through three bottles of shampoo and a whole bar of soap. It was times like those when she hated having long hair.

On top of feeling disgusting, she feels ugly—no, _hideous._ The bags under her eyes were dark and huge, her face is pale, she still has clumps of dirt she couldn't get out in her hair, she looks bony and gangly, and she just looks like a tired old woman. She can't even look in the mirror that night.

In all, Artemis is in a _horrid_ mood. She would have stayed in her room all night, but her stomach was growling with such ferocity that she had to drag herself out of bed. So she makes her way to the kitchen and rolls her eyes when she sees no one other than Wally West there. He's eating bowls—yes, _bowls—_ of cereal, each a different one, and there are three cans of soda next to him. He's munching so loudly that Artemis's eye twitches every time she hears him bite down, and he's acting as if he had no care at all in the world for anything.

She huffs, walking briskly passed him toward the fridge. She feels his eyes on her and she honestly doesn't care. Her eyes roam the continents on each shelves and she sighs when there's no food there (probably because of Wally) so she opens the freezer. She visibly sighs with relief when she sees a container of vanilla ice cream and takes it out. As she's making her way to the cabinet where the bowls are, Wally suddenly speaks.

"So. I take it that you're in a bad mood because of Clayface, huh?"

She gives him a sideways glance and then a grunt, pulling out a spoon. "It's that noticeable?"

He spoons another helping of cereal into his mouth right before he speaks, which causes her to roll her eyes.

"Well the fact that you look like there's steam coming out of your ears and you spent about five hours in the shower. Thanks for using all the hot water, by the way."

She finished scooping her ice cream into the bowl and puts it back into the freezer. "Well, _sorry,_ but when you have long hair, you'd understand."

He just shrugs, but glances at her blond hair that's currently not in a ponytail for once, before quickly looking away. "It takes you five hours to wash your hair?"

"That and trying to get that damn clay and dirt off of me!" she slams the freezer shut. "And I still look disgusting." She shakes her head, spooning some ice cream into her mouth.

"You don't."

She barely hears him, eating more ice cream until she has a brain freeze. "You're right—I look hideous," she mutters for only herself to hear. Wally doesn't say anything and she can't help but think he's silently agreeing with her. She picks up her bowl and stalks her way to the exit when he startles her.

"You're not."

She stops walking, because she's shocked he actually heard her. Her back is to him and he sees her stiffen.

"You're actually kind of beautiful, Artemis."

Her mouth opens and closes for a good five minutes. She's _so_ glad her back is to him so he can't see her furious blush that's she's trying to hide. She's so flustered and flattered that she almost drops her spoon. She wants to turn around and thank him (or hug him) because she hears he earnestly in his voice and she _believes_ him. But she can only bring herself to turn around. He's looking at her, his green eyes sparkling in the dim light, and held her gaze for a few moments. She only gets the courage to speak after a minute, even though it's not really what she wants to say.

"Your cereal is getting soggy."

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 _ **four.**_

She blurts out his name before she even realizes it and it echos off the empty walls.

He stops walking, but doesn't turn around. "What?"

Artemis swallows thickly, not really knowing why she's embarrassed. "I, um…Wally, did I do something to you?"

He still hasn't turned around, but she can hear the confusion laced in his voice. "No. Why would you think that?"

Why does she think that?

For starters, he hasn't spoken to her for two weeks. Usually he would greet her with a snide remark, which would make her fire out a snarky comeback, but when she sees him he says nothing. He doesn't even spare her a glance as he walks on by. The first few times it happened it didn't bother her. But after a few days, it did. She would watch him curiously as he walks to the kitchen after a mission, eat his food without a word, and then speed to the zeta-beams.

He doesn't hang out at the tower anymore. Robin has to play video games by himself because Wally isn't there. He only goes for missions, and once they were done he would zoom off without another word. He only stops speeding off a week later. Artemis can't help but notice that he grew bags under his eyes and has a crease between his eyebrows every time she sees him. She begins to worry. But her pride was too big for her to swallow for her to start the conversation or ask him what was going on, so she would walk by without a word, too.

But two weeks was enough. Artemis is tired of seeing Wally like that and, even though she hates to admit it, his lack of presence had hurt. She finally swallows down her pride and calls out his name as he's making his way to the beams after a mission.

"I don't know, Wally, maybe because you haven't spoken to me—I mean, anyone—for two weeks now."

He says nothing.

"What's up with you?" She presses.

After a few moments, he lets out a sigh so long it sounds like it hurts. He walks over to the couches and sits down. Artemis only joins him when he puts his hands in his head and doesn't move for a while.

"Wally."

When he doesn't answer her second call she tugs at his wrists, trying to get him to lift his head.

"Hey. Wally, look at me."

"I'm so tired," he blurts out, finally lifting his head and looking at her with crazed, green eyes. His gaze is so intense Artemis jumps. "I'm just so _tired_. Being a superhero and fighting bad guys every other day while trying to cram in homework and studying for my midterms coming up? It's impossible. I'm failing in French, History, and Algebra, Artemis. I left early everyday because I was _trying_ to study and get my grades up so my parents don't yell at me again. It's just a lot." He puts his head on his hands again. "Ugh, I sound like a loser."

"You're not a loser, you're just dumb," Artemis tells him, but her voice is soft. "Why didn't you tell anyone or ask for help, you dope?"

" _Because_ you guys are already handling all of your stuff and I don't want to ask that of you guys." He lets out another sigh and leans his head against the back of the couch, staring at the ceiling. "My mom told me if I get another F I have to leave the team."

Artemis blinks in surprise. "Oh."

A few moments of silence goes by and she's biting her lip, glancing at the red head a few times before sighing herself. If she can't handle him not being there for two weeks, she wouldn't be able to handle him not being there _at all_. But like she would ever tell him _that._

"Get your books."

Wally's head lifts up and he blinks dumbly at her. "Huh?"

"Get your books and hurry up about it before I change my mind."

It finally dawns on him that she's offering her help. So beams at her and jumps up, running to go get his bag (not super speeding—she realized he was too tired to) and Artemis can't help but smile.

It turns out he has a French and History test Monday so the two work on that all night long. It's five in the morning when he finally calls it quits and she breaths a sigh of relief, falling back onto the couch.

"Is this how you felt all this time?" She asks, barely having the strength to open her eyes.

"Pretty much."

"I'm so tired," she murmurs, eyes fluttering closed. She feels to couch shift and a weight is next to her. But she's too tired to care.

In the morning, Artemis wonders if she was dreaming or is Wally really did kiss her temple. Either way, the thought leaves her breathless.

Monday comes and Wally speeds into her room, throwing his arms around her and twirling around. She can't help but giggle like a flustered little schoolgirl as he tells her he passed everything while he continues to spin her.

Spinning. She's always spinning these days.

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 _ **five.**_

It's ten at night and she's wondering who in the _hell_ is blasting music while she's trying to finish her homework.

She's working on an English paper. She can't believe she's saying this, but she'd rather take on Clayface by herself than write a paper about the differences in love between to mythical creatures and which kind of love "spoke to her more" or something like that. She's on her second page (she's supposed to write at least five) when she hears it.

First she notices the walls are shaking. It takes her a moment to realize it's from the speakers being blasted by some obnoxious person, and a strong feeling tells her it's Wally West. She thumping makes her eye twitch and head throb until she can't even think straight. She's only halfway finished with her third page when she has enough. She slams her laptop shut, whips open her door, and stomps all the way downstairs. She's ready to kick that person's ass, even if it's Batman playing the music.

As she gets closer, she realizes she _knows_ this song. It's an old one from her rock phase, Destroya by My Chemical Romance. She smiles at the memory of her jamming out to it in her living room with her sister before she shakes her head, pulling her best menacing face on.

When she gets to the living room, it's so loud that Artemis has to literally cover her ears. And, no doubt, it's Wally Rudolph West playing the music. She's ready to go over there and knock some sense into the redhead until she notices what he's doing.

Wally is doing an extremely dorky dance on the couch. He's playing his air guitar and what looked like drums at the same time, bobbing his head up and down and shouting (no, not signing) along to the music. She watches him for a while and Artemis is hysterically laughing, ready to run upstairs and record him for blackmail when he sees her. She expects him to stop immediately, because that's what _she_ would have done, but he does the complete opposite. He grins at her.

Artemis is so surprised that she doesn't even know he speeds over to where she was and grabs her hand. Before she could react, he speeds them over to the couch and pulls her on and starts dancing again. He's holding an imaginary microphone and shouting into it while Artemis bashfully watches him. He holds out the "mic" to her, waiting expectantly for her to sing along. She refuses, and he looks disappointed, but he grabs her other hand instead and twirls her around. He's dancing with her, shouting to the music, and smiling so widely that she forgets that she was even mad and starts singing along.

The grin he gives her is so big it makes Artemis blush and she only blushes harder when he starts dancing with her again. Finally, she puts down her walls and fears just this once and joins him, whipping her hair and kicking wildly with him. She forgets about how loud the music is and forgets about everything else except for them in that moment. She watches him laugh and smile at her and her heart thuds so rapidly against her chest she feels like she's going to explode.

She replays the memory all week and the smile never leaves her face.

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 _ **six.**_

She's sixteen when she has her first birthday party.

M'gann goes nuts when she finds out that Artemis never had a birthday part before. She tells M'gann that it's fine, but of course the Martian goes all out for her friend's sweet sixteen.

She decorates all of the first floor with purple and white balloons and purple streamers and there's a disco ball in the living room and she bakes all of Artemis' favorite foods and snacks and M'gann makes her so happy she almost cries (though she denies it).

Artemis dresses up for the first time in, like, _ever._ She wears a blue spaghetti strap dress that goes right to her knees, white flats, and her hair is out of its usual ponytail and tumbles down her back like gold curtains (everyone, especially Wally West, were surprised to see her that way). Everyone's there (even Batman showed up for a while) and gives presents and eats food and Artemis is truly happy. She doesn't even notice that Wally never gave her a present until he comes up to her near the end of the party with a boyish grin on his face.

"And I thought _my_ sweet sixteen was the sweetest party of all time," he tells her after he pulls her to the side.

Artemis just smiles.

He looks at her for a moment before shaking his head and sticking a long, black box in front of her face.

"This is, uh, for you," he splutters out.

Artemis grins at him. "Thank you, Wally." She eagerly rips open the box to find a simple, gold necklace in there. It sparkles every time you turn it in the light and it has a small but elegant cursive "A" dangling from the chain with diamonds encrusted on the outside. In short, Artemis has never seen any piece of jewelry so beautiful in her life.

"It's…wow," she breathes, taking it out of the case gently like it was a newborn baby. "Wally."

"You like it?"

"I love it."

He breaths out a sigh of relief and smiles shyly. "Good."

She hands him the necklace and turns around and it takes him a moment to realize she wants him to put it on. So he does, but he fumbles with it and his fingers graze her neck a few times, making Artemis' heart jump and she can feel his determined breathing against her the back of her beck which makes her hotter than she'd like. But he finally manages to get it on and she turns to him with an arched brow, trying to contain her flustered self.

"It's about time, Kid Slug."

He grins despite himself and shrugs. "Well, you—I mean, _it—_ the, uh, necklace—looks real nice." He scratches the back of his neck and Artemis laughs at him. Way to go, _Kid Smooth_.

"Thank you, Wally. I'll wear it all the time."

She never takes it off.

.

.

 _ **seven.**_

Artemis should have known M'gann was a Christmas obsessor.

On Christmas morning, Artemis wakes up by horrendous, overplayed, cliché Christmas songs at seven o'clock in the morning. Everyone gives her a cold glare that morning, but she just waves them off with a laugh.

"Where's your Christmas spirit?" she says, floating hither and yon to set up decorations. Which, of course, includes mistletoe.

Surprisingly, Kaldur takes interest in it and sets up the mistletoe across the whole tower—even in the bathrooms. M'gann and Connor just so happens to stumble under it at least ten times, but to both of their delights. Zatanna and Robin stumble under it at least three times, leaving the young boy blushing. And Raquel and Kaldur end up under it twice.

Artemis is doing her very best to absolutely _not,_ in any way, end up under mistletoe. Because she hates mistletoe and hates those dumb Christmas carols and songs and hates Christmas all together because that and everything else is stupid. So she busies herself with setting up the table for the feast and does her best to block out all the annoying songs and music. Because there's _no_ mistletoe in the kitchen so she stays in there for the whole time.

Wally walks in while she's preparing the pies and looks up at the ceiling and then sighs.

"Tis a shame that there's no mistletoe in here, right, Arty? Or you and I would be swapping spit right now."

Artemis sends him a cold, hard glare his way and shudders in disgust. "Wally, you're disgusting."

He just waggles his eyebrows. "Don't act like you don't wanna kiss the _Wall-man._ "

"I'm not _acting,_ I don't want to kiss you and _never_ want to." She shakes her head and brings the pies to the dining room. He follows her.

"Oh, Arty. Stop lying to yourself, it's unhealthy."

She scoffs, puts the pies on the table and begins to make her way back to the kitchen. Unfortunately, a red-head is blocking her way and she glares up at him.

" _Excuse me_."

She frowns when she notices he's looking up.

Of all the places, of all the times, of all the _people,_ Artemis Crock ends up under the mistletoe with Wally West. He slowly looks back down and has a shit-eating grin on his face.

"In your _dreams,_ " she instantly says, but her voice still cracks. She tries to walk past him but he grabs her arms.

"Now where do you think _you're_ going, Arty?" he teases, pulling her back to him.

She ignores the pounding in her heart and tries her best to keep a straight face. "I _know_ I'm going back to the kitchen."

"Hmmm."

She's frozen in place when he dips his head and plants a kiss on her cheek. His lips linger there for a few moments too long and all Artemis wants to do is turn her head so her lips were meeting his. But as soon as the thought came, he pulls away, gives her a wink, and speeds away. She blinks as the wind from his speed slaps her in the face and makes her hair fly out of place. She doesn't know how long she stands there with her fingers on her cheek.

It still tingles the next day. _Damn that boy._

.

.

 _ **eight.**_

Artemis has a serious case of the munchies.

She's supposed to be working on her research paper for history but all she wants to do is eat something salty and crunchy. She shrugs and walks out of her room and makes her way to the kitchen. She expects Wally would be there, eating away, and is surprised he's not. She makes her way to the snack cabinet and pulls out a bag of pretzels when she hears an all too familiar swoosh of wind. She spoke too soon.

She turns to Wally to see he's hunched over and panting. She frowns.

"What'd you just come from your house?" she asks.

He shakes his head, leaning against the counter. "Actually I just came from my room." After he composes himself he makes his way to the stove and pulls out five packages of ramen noodles.

"Then why are you panting like you just ran a marathon or two?" She questions, popping another pretzel in her mouth.

"Lack of food," he answers, squinting at the packages of ramen. "I'm so hungry. My mom's too sick to go food shopping so there's, like, no food at my house and I haven't eaten in four hours." He puts a pot of water on the stove and begins to open the packages. Artemis frowns as she watches him open one of the seasoning packets and pour it into the water that isn't even boiled.

"Wally. What are you doing?"

"Making some food." He says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world and she rolls her eyes.

"That's not how you make ramen."

"…It's not?"

"It's absolutely not."

He stares dumbly at the pot. "Oh." He frowns at the water with a look of utter and complete confusion. God help her, but she finds it cute. So with a long sigh, she puts down her snack and makes her way to the stove.

"Just get out of here, Wally," she says, taking the noodles from his hand and putting on the water for it to _actually_ boil. She shakes her head at his stupidity and lack of cooking skills while he silently watches.

Eventually, Wally sits at the kitchen island quietly while Artemis makes the world's easiest meal. When she's finished, she puts the bowl of _properly_ cooked ramen noodles in front of him. He stares at her, dumbfounded.

"What?" she snaps.

"Nothing—uh…thanks."

It takes her a moment to realize that she just made Wally West some dinner. It's like they're a married couple—

She shakes the thought out of her head and shrugs, picking up her bag of pretzels. "It's no big deal, you loser—I thought everyone with common sense knew how to make ramen."

"Har har," he deadpans.

She looked back at him to see him gazing fondly at her. Her heart leaps out of her chest. "What?" she asks slowly.

He grins boyishly at her. "You just cooked for me—you now have the key to my heart, babe."

Artemis chokes on her pretzels and whacks him upside the head, trying to fight her blush as hard as she could. "Don't ever call me that again." Her voice cracks twice.

He's still grinning and forks some noodles into his mouth. "Whatever you say, babe."

She stomps out of the kitchen and he laughs behind her.

But she went to sleep smiling that night.

.

.

 _ **nine.**_

They kiss on New Years Eve.

Artemis replays the scene over and over again in her head and can't stop smiling whenever she does. She's so embarrassed she doesn't talk to him for four days, afraid that her feelings would only multiply if she does. She succeeds in avoiding him until he speeds into her room one night and kisses her again. She curses herself for making the mistake of ever avoiding him as she pulls him in for another one.

They never talk about it. It just happened and now they're always kissing. He kisses her forehead and her cheeks and her nose and her neck and her lips and she melts every time he does. She accidentally calls him her boyfriend a month later and he responds by kissing her so passionately she almost faints.

She loves it when he surprises her. When she least expects it, he speeds into the room and kisses her and nuzzles her neck murmuring some words along the lines of "beautiful" and "angel" and he speeds out before she can get a change to wrap her arms around his neck. It always leaves her flustered and heart pounding for more as she smiles softly to herself and stands in the same spot for who knows how long every time.

.

.

Artemis was always just twirling. But with him, she's spinning and always dizzy and toppling over and falling hard and—

 _Oh, God, somebody help me._

And it's funny, because the guy who is responsible for all of the above, does.


End file.
